Just saying though, that if they promised me the authority to go with the responsibility, it could be an interesting job.

Give the excellent details and description that B_O has provided, we are pretty sure we have several executives who are fairly inflexible and not competent dealing with technology management. We can probably guess what's been promised the new manager.

Quote:

That being said, should they reneg on the authority I would walk pretty fast.

Now you are starting to see why everyone is leaving

I agree with jbest that, given the authority and support to do what needs to be done, this would be a fantastic job. Unfortunately, the company is unwilling to give anyone that, and they haven't chosen the best candidate the could find; they chose the only viable candidate out of the crop they felt they had time to interview.

That might result in a great manager, and the EVP might give him the power he needs to effect real change, but there's a ton of company history that suggests the likelihood of either of those things is quite low.

My director sent out the notification of my departure today (odd phrasing likely due to his first language not being English):

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Dear All,

It is with regret that I have to announce that Black_Obsidian has tendered his resignation. Black has accepted a new position as Systems Administrator in a local IT company and his last day is May 10th, 2013.

While his stay with $Company has been quite short, we will remember him as a professional of great rigor, capable of analyzing and solving complex issues. We will also miss a nice comrade to work with.

nah, the blame's going to fall upon you. Fortunately it won't matter to you.

On this..

You're bound to at some point hear that someone was talking to your old colleagues and they said you suck. It happened to me when I left a company. It really translated to, "He sucks, because we all wanted out and he took the best job in a bad market. Asshole!" But all I heard was that they had a problem with me. Just a heads up so you don't focus on the wrong thing like I did

I have to admit, I'm tempted ot talk to former coworkers at my old job to see how things have settled down there after my leaving. I'm of two worlds on it. Part of me hopes that the shit hit the fan and then there's chaos, but there's also a large part of me that hope things are ticking along just fine. I figure that if it was total chaos after I left, then that would show that I was justified with my assessment of my former managers, and if it just was ticking along, it would justify my awesome abilities as an administrator.

You'll note that neither scenario implies that I was either incompetent or wrong in any way .

A new manager starts at an organization and finds on his desk three envelopes (marked 1, 2 and 3) and a note from the outgoing manager. The note reads: "To my successor - whenever you are in deep shit, open one of these envelopes."

He goes about his business and does an awesome job for a year, then he makes a bad mistake. He's sweating it but then he sees the envelopes, so he opens #1. There's a note inside that says "Blame your predecessor." He does this and gets away with it.

Things are fine for another year and he makes another bad mistake. This time he doesn't sweat it as badly, he just reaches into his drawer and opens #2. The note inside reads "Blame the consultants." He does this, the consultants are replaced and everything is okay.

A few more years pass uneventfully and he screws up for the third time. He knows he's in really deep shit but then he remembers that he still has envelope #3! He opens it up and fumbles out the note. It reads:

I have to admit, I'm tempted ot talk to former coworkers at my old job to see how things have settled down there after my leaving. I'm of two worlds on it. Part of me hopes that the shit hit the fan and then there's chaos, but there's also a large part of me that hope things are ticking along just fine. I figure that if it was total chaos after I left, then that would show that I was justified with my assessment of my former managers, and if it just was ticking along, it would justify my awesome abilities as an administrator.

You're forgetting the reality distortion field. I had old coworkers from the hell shop who told me it got better after I left, even though I left because of the 25% pay cuts (failed startup). These people went down with the ship. And the fact that it was bought out still, 7 years later, is still pitched as if *I* was the crazy one, even though the company was bought at fire sale prices by a company that is now in its own death throes. You can't reason with people who rationalized either how dumb you were for leaving or how smart they were for staying.

Personally, I just wanted them to finally fail so I could buy some cheap Aeron chairs during bankruptcy

A new manager starts at an organization and finds on his desk three envelopes (marked 1, 2 and 3) and a note from the outgoing manager. The note reads: "To my successor - whenever you are in deep shit, open one of these envelopes."

He goes about his business and does an awesome job for a year, then he makes a bad mistake. He's sweating it but then he sees the envelopes, so he opens #1. There's a note inside that says "Blame your predecessor." He does this and gets away with it.

Things are fine for another year and he makes another bad mistake. This time he doesn't sweat it as badly, he just reaches into his drawer and opens #2. The note inside reads "Blame the consultants." He does this, the consultants are replaced and everything is okay.

A few more years pass uneventfully and he screws up for the third time. He knows he's in really deep shit but then he remembers that he still has envelope #3! He opens it up and fumbles out the note. It reads:

Nothing all that exciting has happened yet. I've buried the new manager's email account under a ton of documentation and "By the way, here's a 'unique' little situation you should be aware of..." messages. Since we'll never meet, hopefully he has everything he needs, because once I'm gone, contracting rates are going to apply if anyone wants anything.

I have had the following conversation a number of times:

Quote:

$Random_Person: Hey Black, who's responsible for $System?Me: That'd be me.$Random_Person: But you leave on Friday.Me: Right.$Random_Person: So who handles it after you leave?Me: The new manager if it's in his skill set.$Random_Person: And if it's not?Me: Hope it doesn't break.$Random_Person: Shit.

Almost fifty people have come to see me since the announcement of my departure went out, and they're divided pretty evenly into two camps:1) People who wondered why I've stayed here so long when I'm clearly work well above my positionand2) People who know about my proposal/the EVP's plan and who wonder what the HR Director has over the CEO that he sided with her "optics concerns" over continuity of operations

Yup, hands-on manager (which I translate to mean "going to be paid less than the last manager"). I actually know who it is now, and as far as I can tell he's not related to anyone. No clue how competent he is, but I've been feeding him documentation and stuff for the past week. I'm pretty sure he already realizes that he's going to be buried up to his neck on his first day, since I doubt that came up in his interview.

There's a good deal of speculation as to just how long he'll stay, once he starts and realizes how difficult the situation really is. Doubly so if one of the two remaining guys decides to leave (either taking away all I.S. support, as that's outside the new manager's wheelhouse, or the only desktop support guy), and they're both looking.

I haven't been asked for an exit interview yet, and I don't imagine I will be. It's not as though my proposal left any questions as to exactly what I think needs to be changed about the environment, after all.

Incidentally, the new guy coming in is just a manager, not a director. Apparently he was hired for his hands-on skills, and was specifically told not to expect the position to grow into a directorship.

Which guarantees they'd get a weak candidate or one who'd quit promptly once s/he started. I've never ever encountered or heard of a person who fulfilled all the below:(a) Had management experience in tech(b) Enjoyed managing and wanted to continue managing(c) Was not interested in advancement along that path

That was the point it became clear the company management as a whole is incompetent. Up until that their actions could be explained as not realizing how to handle IT management (as the company itself is not a digital-tech house), but that decision means they have no clue about the most basic rule-of-thumb HR principles. And then later it transpired they didn't even want the incoming manager to meet the current team before starting...

The new consultants want us to run a scanning tool on each server (manually) to generate whatever information they want. It's a manual process because it's the free version of the tool, which states right at the download link they provided that it's absolutely not licensed for commercial use.

The request came down from our director (who isn't an I.T. guy), with the EVP and Director of HR CCed. Before I could even respond to it, the other I.T. guy replied, in a rather rambling manner, that maybe our high-paid consultants shouldn't be asking us to commit software piracy (his words, not mine).

I replied with a much briefer agreement, and contrasting suggestion that this would hardly be the greatest of our licensing woes, since the company is well aware that it has been been out of license compliance with MS since 2011, and that the cost of remediating that is somewhere in the tens of thousands.

The outcome of this email should be amusing. It doesn't sound like the other I.T. guy is willing to do what's being asked at all. I probably would, given these emails as a CYA measure, but I also have the benefit of having 80% of my body already out the door.

EDIT: I also CCed the new manager, just so he knows what's up. I figure it's only fair, since the resulting shit show will be his responsibility, come Monday.

I always thought it would be hella cool to spend a last day at a job with a big bucket of popcorn I'd carry around with me anywhere. And whenever I see or hear something that's going to get interesting, I would start to grab some hands of that popcorn and stuff it in frantically. While saying "yeah, sure!" to even the dumbest suggestions.

Where are these consultants from? Maybe you should report them to the software vendor...

I wonder how these 'consultants' were picked. This screams of 'IT isn't hard, my 12 year old nephew can do it...' mentality.

Thank $deity you are gone tomorrow, cause this isn't good. You should start a pool on 1) whether the new "manager" makes it through the first week and 2) if the IS and/or desktop support guy leave before the manager does.

I helped a company on the receiving end of one of those 'don't copy that floppy" complaints. It was a small computer shop operating out of the back of a Radio Shack. They had one OEM license for Windows, Word Perfect and several other things. They installed it on hundreds of computers.

The new consultants want us to run a scanning tool on each server (manually) to generate whatever information they want. It's a manual process because it's the free version of the tool, which states right at the download link they provided that it's absolutely not licensed for commercial use.

The request came down from our director (who isn't an I.T. guy), with the EVP and Director of HR CCed. Before I could even respond to it, the other I.T. guy replied, in a rather rambling manner, that maybe our high-paid consultants shouldn't be asking us to commit software piracy (his words, not mine).

I replied with a much briefer agreement, and contrasting suggestion that this would hardly be the greatest of our licensing woes, since the company is well aware that it has been been out of license compliance with MS since 2011, and that the cost of remediating that is somewhere in the tens of thousands.

The outcome of this email should be amusing. It doesn't sound like the other I.T. guy is willing to do what's being asked at all. I probably would, given these emails as a CYA measure, but I also have the benefit of having 80% of my body already out the door.

EDIT: I also CCed the new manager, just so he knows what's up. I figure it's only fair, since the resulting shit show will be his responsibility, come Monday.

I don't understand this.

Spiceworks or even appropriate WMI scripting plus powershell would give them the answers.

The new consultants want us to run a scanning tool on each server (manually) to generate whatever information they want. It's a manual process because it's the free version of the tool, which states right at the download link they provided that it's absolutely not licensed for commercial use.

You know... having you you use a freeware tool in contravention to the license instead if using a real enterprise inventory/monitoring tool, or heaven forbid, writing some scripts.

Like how Best Buy got caught giving its Geek Sqaud guys DVDs filled with unlicensed freeware diagnostics and malware scanners instead of paying for fully licensed versions, or developing their own solution.

I helped a company on the receiving end of one of those 'don't copy that floppy" complaints. It was a small computer shop operating out of the back of a Radio Shack. They had one OEM license for Windows, Word Perfect and several other things. They installed it on hundreds of computers.

The new consultants want us to run a scanning tool on each server (manually) to generate whatever information they want. It's a manual process because it's the free version of the tool, which states right at the download link they provided that it's absolutely not licensed for commercial use.

You know... having you you use a freeware tool in contravention to the license instead if using a real enterprise inventory/monitoring tool, or heaven forbid, writing some scripts.

Like how Best Buy got caught giving its Geek Sqaud guys DVDs filled with unlicensed freeware diagnostics and malware scanners instead of paying for fully licensed versions, or developing their own solution.

I guess you must have missed me complaining about consultants and contractors for the last few years.

What they're doing is amateur hour. The pros at being the overpriced "consultant" will subcontract any difficult work to give themselves an out as well as charge you margin on any licenses while talking it up like it's a discount.

If you don't feel like you've been had, then it's still amateur hour. If you're thankful for when they're done, then they're real pros.

Now, a real professional working for a competent MSP or consultancy? It'll be like that first taste of true love during a summer romance. The memories will keep you wanting more, and dreading the drudgery of every day life.

I really have to work on two of those three. Lazy I have mastered, but I still have a hard time using the skill for work purposes. I'm sure once I manage to make it the premise of my work the ethical values will finally rush out of me and the ability to charge crazy rates will somehow certainly just come with that...

I really have to work on two of those three. Lazy I have mastered, but I still have a hard time using the skill for work purposes. I'm sure once I manage to make it the premise of my work the ethical values will finally rush out of me and the ability to charge crazy rates will somehow certainly just come with that...

Please see what I wrote above about engaging subcontractors. Then you can now call yourself a project manager as well

Where are these consultants from? Maybe you should report them to the software vendor...

I wonder how these 'consultants' were picked. This screams of 'IT isn't hard, my 12 year old nephew can do it...' mentality.

Thank $deity you are gone tomorrow, cause this isn't good. You should start a pool on 1) whether the new "manager" makes it through the first week and 2) if the IS and/or desktop support guy leave before the manager does.

Our CEO (who owns a number of smaller, largely limited-success/not-yet-failed companies) uses these consultants to support a couple of his other companies. Although we host the hardware for those companies, I've had little to no interaction with the consultants in the past, beyond "please stick a cleaning tape in the LTO3 drive," so I wasn't in a place to judge their competency.

I am now, however, and what I see isn't good. I've definitely considered emailing the vendor to give them a heads up on this. In the meantime, the other I.T. guy has basically told the consultants (and our upper manager) to sit on it and rotate. He's apparently fully prepared to resign on the spot today if they give him too much grief over it.

The pools you speak of already exist. The leading bet on the manager's is currently "Leaves for lunch on his first day and doesn't come back," followed closely by "Never shows up at all."

FWIW there are good orgs out there who don't use shit tools or cut corners. They also tend to charge significantly higher due to the much higher operating costs, and while a few do very well due to great skill, great trust, and great people, many of them languish and never grow above X size or worse - they get beaten out by the shit-shops.

Total sidetrack here, however maybe Black_Obsidian you can use this experience moving forward to help you in interactions with whatever consultants your NEW employer works with.

I took it as FNG's internal mailbox was already set up and he was queuing messages up there.

That happens here quite frequently - we know someone is coming onboard but their start date is a week or two off. In the interim, we add them to DLs and stuff and they spend part of Day 0 catching up on recent things.